The Seville Orange season by Elaine Kay

Marmalade is one of our favourite breakfast treats, and this recipe deserves a big thank you to my friend Christine who inspired this recipe. Christine´s original family recipe uses a pressure cooker, but as I do not own one, this is my version of the recipe. Cutting up the peel takes a long time, so you will need patience as well for this one. I have to say though that this is one of the best things I ever made, its delicious and so I had to share the recipe with you all.

Testing the Set

I also used my Thermapen to get to the correct setting point of 106C. My friend has been making this for years and I dare say she can tell when the marmalade is ready without one, and I suppose if you are used to doing preserves you may use the freezer and saucer method.

You do this by placing a few saucers into your freezer, place a spoonful of marmalade onto the saucer, and push with your finger, you should see a skin start to form when the marmalade is set. I have to say this did not work for me, when I made marmalade using Delia´s recipe, I ended up burning the pan whilst I was messing about with the frozen plates! So its a Thermapen for me.

The Best Oranges for Marmalade

This recipe calls for Seville Orangesas they are more bitter than other varieties. If you can´t find Seville Oranges, then you could use other varieties and replace them with a few more lemons. Remember though this recipes calls for oranges, it won´t work with clementines or similar and it would not have the pectin content. Pectin is necessary to give the marmalade a good set.

The Seville Orange Season

The season for these oranges is from the end of December until mid February, so your marmalade making needs to be early in the year. However if you have a large enough freezer then it is possible to freeze them whole, so you could stock up and do your marmalade making in smaller batches. I found it difficult to find online suppliers, try Waitrose online, however as they are seasonal you may or may not find them. I am lucky enough to have a friend with a tree that kindly gave me some oranges, thank you Jean!

Oranges are par excellence the fruit of Seville. It is part of the culinary tradition of the province, its culture, its identity. Among its varieties is bitter orange, the main raw material of orange marmalade. Oranges have a great meaning for cuisine and for Seville's economy, so it deserves that their cultivation be in excellent condition. Our company guarantees so, giving priority to nature. And also defending the product, getting its good evaluation. We produce and export bitter orange and its products, keeping the traditional modes of production to guarantee that it preserves its highest quality.